There’s a major challenge in assessing diets – whether it’s for nutritional studies or for the purposes of a physician or dietitian looking at a patient’s eating habits – in that it relies on participants to record their food intake themselves. This is, however, subject to human error, forgetfulness, and in some cases, even omission.

But, in a new development, researchers at McMaster University have identified several chemical signatures that are detectable in blood and urine, and can accurately reflect dietary intake. This positive news potentially offers a new tool for researchers, physicians and dietitians to measure the value of fad diets and develop health policies. 

Read: Here’s how going on fad diets can mess with your brain

According to Philip Britz-McKibbin, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at McMaster University and lead author of the study, this challenge may be one of the main reasons for the “lack of real progress in nutritional sciences and chronic disease prevention”.

The study

The research, published in the journal Nutrients, notes that a large body of evidence has linked unhealthy eating patterns with a concerning increase in obesity and chronic disease worldwide, but that existing methods of assessing dietary intake in nutritional epidemiology relies on food frequency questionnaires or dietary records, which are prone to bias and selective reporting.

Previous research published in the NCBI also mentions that the goal of any dietary survey is to measure what people eat – more precisely, to measure what foods and supplements people habitually eat or usually ingest, but these survey methods are largely based on memory (recall), resulting in errors in the measurement of nutrient intake.

This study therefore had scientists study participants on two contrasting diets over a two-week period. The two diets included the Prudent diet (rich in fruits, vegetables, lean meats and whole grains), and a contemporary Western diet (rich in processed foods, red meat, trans fats and sweetened beverages).

The scientists then set out to determine if they could identify chemical signatures, or metabolites, that reflected any changes in participants’ dietary intake, and measure those markers. They then compared the data with the food study participants were provided with and reported that they had eaten. 

The specimens analysed were from healthy individuals who participated in the Diet and Gene Intervention Study (DIGEST).

Hopeful results

Researchers were able to validate a panel of metabolites in urine and plasma that matched  participants’ reporting on their consumption of fruits, vegetables, protein and/or fibre.

“We were able to detect short-term changes in dietary patterns which could be measured objectively,” says Britz-McKibbin. “And it didn’t take long for these significant changes to become apparent.”

However, Britz-McKibbin says that our diets are composed of thousands of different kinds of chemicals, making food chemistry highly complex. For this reason, researchers don’t know what role all of them may play in overall health.

In the future he hopes to broaden this study by examining a larger cohort of participants over a longer period of time. 

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Compiled by Zakiyah Ebrahim

The party says it would tax the “wealthiest” to cut hospital waiting times if it wins the election.

Immediate skin-to-skin contact between newborns and their mothers is encouraged, but poses some potential risks in cases of Caesarean birth, researchers say.

In a new report, the researchers described two cases where newly delivered babies came into contact with electrodes on the mothers’ skin that were used to monitor her vital signs during C-section surgery.

Heart rate alarm triggered

The cases were reported in the December issue of the European Journal of Anaesthesiology.

One case involved a 37-year-old woman in Spain who required C-section delivery because her baby’s head was too large to fit through her pelvis. The healthy baby boy was delivered with no major bleeding and, after an initial examination, was placed on his mother’s chest.

“Shortly after this, the heart rate alarm was triggered on the monitor, due to an apparent dramatic increase of the mother’s heart rate,” report co-author Dr Nicolas Brogly said in a journal news release.

“However, the woman remained conscious and with no complaint,” and her heart, blood pressure and other vital signs were normal, said Brogly of La Zarzuela University Hospital and La Paz Hospital in Madrid.

Doctors checked the electrocardiographic (ECG) electrodes attached to the mother.

ECG returns to normal

“The newborn was found suckling the right electrode of the ECG, which was immediately replaced to another site on the mother’s skin,” Brogly said. “The abnormal ECG rhythm, which was in fact a combination of the mother and the baby’s ECG, then disappeared.”

The second case involved a 36-year-old woman in the Netherlands who had a C-section because her baby boy’s head did not descend. After birth, the newborn was placed on the woman’s chest. Soon after, the woman’s ECG showed an abnormally fast heart rhythm.

“A quick inspection of the baby showed that he had taken the right ECG lead in his hand. After carefully moving this lead to the mother’s right shoulder, the ECG returned to normal,” said Dr Leonie Slegers, of St. Antonius Hospital, in Woerden.

Both cases show that through the baby suckling or touching an ECG electrode, the cardiac electric activity of the baby can merge with the mother’s, Brogly said. “This novel source of electric interference represents a risk for both the mother and the baby,” he added.

The alarm on the monitor could have led to a misdiagnosis, leading to administration of heart drugs, or worse, using the defibrillator on the mother to stabilise her heart rate, Brogly explained.

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Low-income communities in South Africa have the lowest incidence of breast cancer in the country. But they also have the worst health outcomes. Black South African women are the least likely segment of the population to have breast cancer but the most likely to die from it.

This is because it tends to be diagnosed too late for successful treatment when it may have spread to other parts of the body. In low-income communities, detection is low.

This is partly because women delay seeking treatment due to financial and personal priorities. Some are also unfamiliar with the signs and symptoms. Others seek treatment from sangomas (traditional healers) first, and only seek care from hospitals when the pain becomes too great.

Late detection and diagnosis also means that treatment is more severe. Women end up having mastectomies with chemotherapy and lengthy radiation, instead of less invasive treatment such as the removal of a lump.

We interviewed 50 black women living in Soweto who had undergone treatment for breast cancer. We conducted the study because clinicians at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital wanted to have a better understanding of the lives of their patients.

We found that women described breast cancer as an aggressive, frightening force, worse than other medical conditions such as HIV and hypertension. They also described the treatment as toxic and stressful. Most women described chemotherapy as much worse than cancer itself.

These findings are important because the fear women have around cancer can be changed with improved education, earlier diagnosis, and less invasive treatment. Understanding how they feel about cancer and cancer treatment can improve the way they are cared for, and help them cope better after diagnosis.

Women’s experiences of cancer

We invited women from the South Africa Breast Cancer Study (SABC) to spend two to three hours telling us about their experiences. The study enrols patients seeking care at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

At other medical centres in South Africa, 70% of black patients who are diagnosed with breast cancer are already in a late stage of the disease. But at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the figure was only 50%. This is because the hospital runs education and screening programmes in the surrounding community. It also has better medical resources compared to other South African public medical facilities.

According to the hospital, 70% of the breast cancer patients undergo surgery combined with eight chemotherapy treatments, one every three weeks. For those who receive radiation therapy, the treatment is administered daily for six weeks.

Many of the women we interviewed referred to breast cancer as a “demon”. One woman explained that the word for cancer in isiZulu is umdlavuza, or “something that bites aggressively”. Others feared that the cancer would return, even after successful treatments.

Most women described breast cancer as worse than other diseases. One woman said: I think if I had just high blood pressure my life would be better than now with cancer.

More than half of the women perceived cancer as worse than HIV. “Because with HIV,” one woman said, “you just take the pills and you’re done. Cancer, it’s got so many things.”

We found that chemotherapy was a source of fear and stress. Some women called it “the red devil” or “a poison that attacks the cancer”. Others believed that the “poison” attacked not just the cancer but the whole body. Some women stated that they would rather have a mastectomy than undergo chemotherapy.

Some feared that chemotherapy was what would actually kill them. A woman said, “Cancer is much better than chemo. Chemo is a modern cancer in your body. You’re sick with modern cancer which makes you miserable.”

Having a breast surgically removed changed how the women perceived themselves. A woman in her early thirties said: “They took out my breast and it made me feel kind of like I’m uncomfortable with myself, my body.”

The disfiguration left by the removal of the breast deeply affected their sense of self worth.

Solutions

At Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, 80% of breast cancer patients receive complete mastectomies. The remaining patients often have cancers that are too advanced for treatment.

In wealthier neighbourhoods and private clinics, most people receive partial or targeted lumpectomies. This means that less of the breast is removed. This is due to earlier detection. It is also due to the flexibility of treatment in private clinics.

Effective and less invasive treatments would improve how people experience treatment, and how they feel about it. It may also shift social messaging and emotional experiences around cancer diagnosis.

Breast cancer treatment must be refocused to care for people as individuals with multiple conditions and social challenges. But this cannot be done without better detection for those whose medical care is limited, or diminishing women’s fear of cancer and chemotherapy. Women should be encouraged to find and seek care for lumps. Efforts like Pink Drive and other community based cancer programmes are key for elevating awareness and reducing fear around breast cancer.

Emily Mendenhall, Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor, Georgetown University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Emily Mendenhall, Georgetown University

A Nigerian father who used to chase health workers away from his home has a change of heart.

When a little girl from Melbourne, Australia named Shilah was born, her parents didn't notice anything out of the ordinary about her hair. It was soft and brown, just like her older brother Taelan's. But after several months, it started to grow "straight up and not flattening down," her mom Celeste Calvert-Yin recently wrote on Love What Matters.

"Others started to comment which made us even more inquisitive as to why and what was happening," Calvert-Yin shared. "'What’s wrong with her hair?' they would say. It was hurtful and sometimes quite rude, but I’m sure they were just being ignorant an insensitive."

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Some people would remark, "Looks like she stuck her finger in the power socket," the mom of two noted. "Often people would even ask to touch her hair or just come up out of the blue and touch her hair," she wrote. "As a parent this would really annoy me and my husband, and we would often make it known that it was not okay. 'Do you mind? She is just a baby and we don’t go around touching your kids.' The worst was possibly people who would take pictures of Shi without even asking, and then try to pretend they weren’t when caught. I remember my husband asking many a time for people to delete what they had taken."

RELATED: Baby Born with Rare Skin Condition Will Have Batman-Shaped Face Patch Removed

SHILAHMADISON/INSTAGRAM

The parents tried various techniques on Shilah's hair before concluding that "it was a gene from our family history and that was just that." "We told people that perhaps it was a throwback to one of our family histories and people were okay with this explanation," Calvert-Yin wrote. "Or I just said she was 'blessed with her hair and born to be noticed.' That was easier for kids to understand."

RELATED: Gymnast Katelyn Ohashi Reveals Rare Skin Condition in Nude Photo Shoot

As Shilah got older, her hair got longer but never grew past a certain length, her mom shared. "It would instead just snap off at the root and seemed to be quite fragile," she noted. "The knots and tangles were an everyday battle. If you tried to sort them out, she would lose quiet a lot of hair just from brushing. Many, many hours have been spent in tears trying to sort out the overnight dreads, so now she sleeps on a pure silk pillowcase, and it has made a huge difference for her."

RELATED: Evangeline Lilly Shaved Her Head on Instagram, and She Looks Amazing

Luckily, Shi has embraced her appearance from a young age, the proud mom explained. "She had never known any differently," Calvert-Yin wrote. "She’d make sweet remarks like, 'Just call me fuzzy. Some days I look like a lion with a crazy mane.' Both Shi and her brother Taelan were in childcare when I returned to work, which I think really helped. Kids truly do just say what they are thinking, and this helped shape and strengthen Shi. She was confident and sassy and quickly learned how to work her uniqueness to her benefit. She would tell them she was ‘magical and special,’ and they were just ‘normal and boring.’"

SHILAHMADISON/INSTAGRAM

A even stranger likened Shi to Doc Brown from Back to the Future as she was wearing a lab coat. "‘Your daughter looks just like Doc Brown, the guy in the movie. The crazy scientist guy!’" Calvert-Yin remembered. "Others often said she had ‘hair like Albert Einstein.’ They were spot on, and it did become a bit of an in-house giggle for us."

Although people had recommended the family consult a doctor, Calvert-Yin never felt it was necessary. "It was just her hair, it was just our Shilah," she noted. "However, it came a day when Shi was in the hospital for her teeth and the doctor who was caring for her asked us a telling question: 'Are you aware of uncombable hair syndrome?'"

The doctor explained to Shi's mom that UHS was caused by a gene mutation, and it involves silvery blonde or straw-colored hair that stands up from the scalp and can’t be combed flat. "The doctor had researched UHS but have never met a child with the condition," Calvert-Yin wrote. "I was shocked, teary and excited all at the same time, finally a possible answer to all those years of questions. The doctor was just as excited."

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Turns out, Shilah is one of only about 100 people in the world who is affected by UHS. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), it generally develops in childhood, often between infancy and age 3, but can appear as late as age 12. The condition usually improves over time. By adolescence, people with UHS might have hair that lies flat and has normal or nearly normal texture.

After an exam, the family learned that Shi's teeth have weakened enamel and break easily, and every hair on her head is affected by the condition. "We were so happy to have an answer, but it was now time to share with everyone to make a difference and to help others around the world," Calvert-Yin wrote.

The proud mom now runs an Instagram account for her daughter that boasts 14.K followers. "Comments have been both supportive and ugly at times, but it is an amazing platform to connect with those who want who support her, or somewhere they can say to their little one, ‘Look, you’re not alone. You’re not the only one and look at how this little girl rocks it!’" she shared.

SHILAHMADISON/INSTAGRAM

She continues to be impressed by Shi's incredible, inspiring self-confidence. The mantra the tween recently shared with her mother? "You just have to love yourself, Mom. Who cares about everyone else?"

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This article originally appeared on Parents.com

A Monash University study revealing new spin textures in pyrite could unlock these materials’ potential in future spintronics devices.

An Australian-led international research effort has broken fresh ground in the race to find more effective treatments for the childhood cancer neuroblastoma, by uncovering a new and as-yet unexploited target in cancer cells that therapeutic drugs can be aimed at.

Anthrax may soon help more people win the fight against bladder cancer, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says strikes about 72,000 Americans each year and kills about 16,000, and is one of the most expensive cancers to treat.